City Council to consider grim budgets for 2011-2013
Colorado Springs residents reeling from years of budget cuts should expect more angst through 2013.
Under the city government’s budget projections for 2011 through 2013, city employees can expect more layoffs and no raises.
The city is predicting budget shortfalls of $27 million next year, $12 million in 2012 and $11.5 million in 2013.
The projected shortfalls are part of a three-year budget outlook the City Council will discuss Monday.
The report, prepared by the city’s Financial Services Division, is on the council’s informal agenda, so no formal action will be taken.
“While there are signs that this historic recession is ending, there is significant consensus that state and local government finances will continue to suffer for a number of years,” Terri Velasquez, the city’s chief financial officer, said in the report.
That’s because the economic recovery isn’t expected to be led by consumer spending; unemployment is expected to remain high, which affects consumer spending; the housing industry is expected to recover slowly; and property tax revenue is “based upon a lagged valuation, so the impact of recent declines in property values have yet to be realized,” Velasquez said in the report.
“This outlook, coupled with known unavoidable expenditure increases and other identified risks, will exert pressure on the city to continue to reduce services, program offerings and related staff,” she said.
Vice Mayor Larry Small said the future looks grim.
“We’re on a death spiral, in my opinion, if these numbers are really correct and we can’t do something to change them,” he said.
To balance the 2010 budget, city officials eliminated night and weekend bus service, reduced park irrigation and maintenance and laid off about 93 employees and let go of an additional 88 under an early retirement program, among other cost-saving measures.
Small said continuing to cut services and programs isn’t the solution.
“There comes a time when you may as well go out of business if you’re going to try to operate like that,” he said.
Councilman Bernie Herpin said he’s most concerned about the possibility of having to cut more services in coming years.
“You have to have a balanced budget, and if you don’t have the revenue, then you have to cut,” he said.
“We’re at the point where about the only thing really left (to cut) is public safety and that’s going to start taking a bigger hit, and that certainly concerns me because that’s the No. 1 function of government, to provide the common defense,” he said.
Herpin said the recommendations from the council-appointed Sustainable Funding Committee, which spent more than a year examining the city’s financial structure, would continue to be examined. For example, the committee recommended seeking proposals from private operators to run the Valley Hi Golf Course that would return revenues to the general fund. Another recommendation — exploring the possible sale of Memorial Health System — was initiated this week.
Council meeting
When: 1 p.m. Monday Jan. 11, 2010
Where: City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave.
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